John Redwood MP: We need cheaper energy

The very cold weather we suffered this Easter is a suitable backdrop for my latest campaign.

I want cheaper energy. We need it to keep warm at home. We need it to fuel our factories and power our offices at a competitive price.

The USA has industrial gas prices under one half of European ones, giving them a mighty advantage.

The problem we face is created by EU and UK energy policies designed to make our energy much dearer.

The EU’s requirement that we rush into renewable has resulted in large number of windfarms.

This delivers expensive energy when the wind blows, and requires an equal amount of back-up capacity to be provided at substantial additional cost for when the wind does not blow.

The failure of the past UK Government to make decisions about replacing our older nuclear capacity leaves us short of that means of generating plenty of power in a clean way.

New nuclear is not cheap, but once you have a nuclear station the costs of running it are relatively low.

Worse still is the need under EU laws agreed to by the last Government to turn off our coal-fired and some oil-fired power stations.

If the UK had built more modern cleaner replacements that could generate sensibly priced power all would be well.

Unfortunately, no-one bothered to do that, so now we face the closure of power plants like Didcot and Fawley to comply.

We see the expensive conversion of Drax, which accounts for seven per cent of our electricity supply, to burning timber instead of coal.

As this timber has to be hauled from Canada to us by truck and boat, it is difficult to see the environmental advantages, while it is easy to see the way it will make it dearer for pensioners to heat their home.

I have raised all this in Parliament with the energy minister and the Chancellor.

I have now written a formal letter.

I have proposed that the UK seeks a delay in implementing the relevant EU legislation, to allow us time to build and provide suitable alternative sources of energy that can supply enough at more realistic prices.

Our coal power stations are performing fine in the run-up to early closure.

We need them to do a bit more work, meaning their high capital cost is spread over a longer life.

I appreciate this is not easy for ministers, as our authority to settle our own energy policy here was given away in the past.

However, the policies of the EU are not just doing damage to our pensioners’ budgets and to our industrial competitiveness, but do the same throughout the EU.

It is time to find some allies and change the law.

It would also be helpful if our MEPs used their influence in the European Parliament to start to change the mood there, as it is their laws we need to change.